Female Mass Murderers

This article is not about the Aurora shooting except that it got me wondering about why I never hear about female mass murderers. Other than two particularly nasty workplace shootings by women—Amy Bishop and Jennifer San Marco—I couldn't recall a single incident of a woman mowing down multiple strangers in a single event. Have there been any female mass murderers? Would this crime have been different if James had been Jessica or June?

On January 20, 2006, Jennifer San Marco shot her former neighbor, Beverly Graham, in the head and then drove to her former place of employment, where she proceeded to shoot six employees before killing herself. While she left behind no suicide note, San Marco had a history of serious mental problems which had led to her retirement from a postal job six years previously. People who knew her described bizarre behavior (showing up at a service station naked, mumbling to herself as if she were two people arguing) leading up to the mass murder.

On October 30, 1985, twenty-something Sylvia Seecrest walked into the Springfield Mall (outside Philadelphia) with a semiautomatic rifle and randomly began firing. She aimed at shoppers who failed to move fast enough and randomly shot inside several stores, ultimately killing 2 and wounding 8. She was stopped after a 24-year-old graduate student grabbed her arm and told her he was going to turn her in. She obediently sat in a chair while he went to find a security guard. Many of those who worked at the mall already knew Sylvia for her bizarre behavior (harassing customers, scaring them with bizarre monologues, complaining the colors of the clothing were too bright and making her angry) and her history of severe mental illness (she had been diagnosed with schizophrenia at age 15 and hospitalized twelve times in the previous ten years).

Then, there's 51-year-old Priscilla Joyce Ford, who, on a Thanksgiving Day afternoon in 1980, decided to run as many people over as possible with her Lincoln 1974 Lincoln Continental. Her five block massacre left seven dead and twenty two seriously injured. Upon arrest, Ms. Ford claimed to be Adam (of Adam and Eve fame) as well as a prophet. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, numerous people testified about her mental instability prior to the massacre although she was convicted and sentenced to death.

These three examples of female mass murderers share a commonality; in nearly every instance, whether they killed relatives, friends, or co-workers, they had a history of mental illness. Of course, there are also male mass murderers who are responding to command hallucinations or delusions of persecution. However, there is one type pf mass murderer who seems to be exclusively male—the "pseudocommando" mass murderer. Unlike the psychotic killer, the pseudocommando's motive is revenge.

The "Pseudocommando" Mass Murderer

The term "pseudocommando" was first used to describe the type of mass murderer who carefully and methodically plans his actions and who kills indiscriminately in public. This is not a person who "snaps;" he comes prepared with a powerful arsenal of weapons, typically has no escape planned, and is pursing a highly personal and well-thought-out agenda of "payback."

According to research, these revenge mass murderers tend to have been bullied or socially excluded as children. As adults, they tend to be highly sensitive to any slight or rejection and to spend time dwelling on past humiliations. Given the right circumstances, these obsessive thoughts turn into violent revenge fantasies to protect a fragile—sometimes overly inflated—ego. In fact, it is when the perpetrator is feeling most powerless that he is likely to justify acting on his fantasies and begin the transition from obsessive thought to devastating action. The meticulous plans he make not only distract him from a reality that he finds increasingly intolerable, they give him a false sense of power and omnipotence.

The Bottom Line

Like female murderers in general, female mass murderers are more likely to kill people they know—children, coworkers, husbands. When they do kill strangers, the actions are likely to be fueled by a longstanding—and relatively obvious—severe mental illness. They aren't, however, likely to show up at a movie theater dressed in army gear and seeking revenge.

It does seem that the more impulsive mass murderers are female, and the mass murderers who delay the event in order to carefully plan it beforehand are male. Interesting sexual phenotype expression /behavior, possibly.

I personally think that the "commando killers" have also had a break with reality and also have a long-term but probably mild form of schizophrenia (or autism); the difference is that their "snap" or break with reality just preceded the actual mass murder event by a longer time span.

Could have something to do with impulse control; the "commando's" break with reality occurs at a earlier point in the process: it precipitates the planning stage; its their point of departure.

I think the "commando" type really, really enjoys the planning stage, it gives him a rush: the glee of anticipation. Note that a week before the event, James Holmes sent his notebook filled with drawings and details of how he would pull off his power/revenge fantasy to a psychiatrist at the campus he was attending; Holmes self-identifies with "The Joker", a comic-book super villain, and that's exactly how a comic-book super villain behaves. The comic-book super villain is the penultimate narcissist/psychopath who invariably shares his plans with his nemesis the super-hero, beforehand. Its part of the ego-boosting (male-ego boosting?) fantasy revenge to revel and preen in their own genius and brag about how they will successfully pull off a spectacular, bloody incident and that nobody can stop them, even though he is taunting his enemies with the knowledge of it ahead of time.

My own theory is that these types of mass murder or serial killer incidents occur when there is a *combination* of a personality disorder (most likely narcissistic pd or psychopathy) PLUS a psychotic disorder (most likely schizophrenia or autism.) I think that's why things like this don't happen every week, it takes that particular *combination* of disorders and a precipitating ego-wounding event to set them off.

And low supervision of these marginally functional individuals is a factor as well; these are individuals who are just skimming along the surface of "normal enough", and can easily be tipped over into a psychotic break.

It brings up the issue of the marginally functional individuals in our societyl needing to be given more supervision in perhaps a group residential setting and not being allowed to wander around without a care-giver present to monitor their behaviors and see if the mentally ill person is deteriorating or remaining stable.